


For Him/Doing the Math

by jdjunkie



Category: Stargate SG-1
Genre: Episode Related, M/M, Tangent
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2010-09-19
Updated: 2010-09-19
Packaged: 2017-10-12 00:23:29
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,460
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/118776
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/jdjunkie/pseuds/jdjunkie
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Two ficlets that belong together, centred around Jack's return in Tangent and "that moment," that shared look on the scout ship.</p>
            </blockquote>





	For Him/Doing the Math

For him

 

It was like sunshine after rain, watching Jack take that first precious breath. The oxygen mask fell away and Jack gasped recycled Tok’ra scout ship air after being snatched from death in airless space.

“They’re all right.” Daniel heard the words as he said them and, for the first time, allowed himself to believe that Jack and Teal’c had made it.

Jack struggled to take off his helmet as he struggled to control his breathing. Daniel breathed with him, synched up the inhale and exhale and tried to imagine how those intakes of air must feel to someone who believed they were about to breathe their last. In ... out, Daniel’s breath hitching as a warm rush of relief washed through him.

And then Jack smiled at him. At him. It was open and warm and suffused with undisguised affection. And his eyes ... they smiled too, gentle and unguarded. There was no hiding place here. In that moment, Jack was more Jack than Daniel had ever seen him.

In the best way, it took Daniel’s breath away. He gasped a little, unbearably moved by the intensity and honesty. For a moment, he was back in the Gateroom, facing an alien organism as it said, “He wishes to live,” looking right at Daniel. He wishes to live for you.

And now Jack was reaching for him, hand trying and failing to touch. Defenseless, confused, in extremis, Jack reached for Daniel.

“Hi ... hey,” Jack whispered.

Hand shaking, Daniel reached for Jack but stopped short when Jacob crouched beside them. Daniel watched Jack’s lips move as he spoke to Jacob, but he didn’t hear what was said. He was shutting down, exhaustion and relief warring with each other and then maliciously joining forces and thrumming through him.

He didn’t know whether to laugh or cry, and strongly suspected he’d end up doing both if he gave into his feelings. Jack and Teal’c were home, and the team had got them there. The Tollan and the MIA Asgard could go fuck themselves.

Daniel half-turned to check that was Teal’c fine and he was. And Jacob really needed to stop talking now because the room suddenly felt too full.

Daniel watched Jack come back fully to himself. It was a fascinating, rapid transformation. He saw him smile again, but this time the smile was the Jack-smile everyone knew. The smile was like the man himself -- a little wry, a lot likeable. The man the universe fell in love with. Just as Daniel had, quietly, secretly and completely so long ago.

This time when Jack reached out, Daniel’s hand was there. Jack’s hand was cold and trembling. But god he was alive and real. Daniel hauled him to his feet and supported his weight as he found his balance. Daniel caught a fistful of Jack’s jacket and longed to pull him closer, to whisper, “You’re okay, you’re safe, you’re home.” He needed to hear that every bit as much as suspected Jack did.

Daniel desperately didn’t want to let go. Jack didn’t seem to want to either, squeezing Daniel’s hand a little before pulling away and walking over to where Teal’c and Sam were talking quietly.

The colonel was back.

But Daniel had seen Jack. The real, barriers-down, no-defenses, Jack.

Daniel bent to pick up Jack’s helmet and oxygen mask and, out of the corner of his eye, caught Jacob watching him, and knew instantly that Jacob had seen, too. Their eyes met briefly, and Daniel looked away before he gave away any more. He couldn’t afford that.

He watched Jack pat Teal’c on the shoulder and smile at Sam. But the smile wasn’t that smile. He hugged it to himself, knew he’d see it over and over when he closed his eyes, and tried not to hope that it meant what he thought it meant.

He smiled at Jacob and went to find some water and aspirin.

Doing The Math

 

Jack breathed deeply. In, out. In, out. Just because he could.

He reveled in the simple luxury of feeling his lungs expanding, filling with blessed oxygen. Recycled though the air may be, he could imagine it was cool and clear and pure and from Minnesota if he tried hard enough.

Sitting on a shelf that passed for seating, eyes closed, he pictured the alveoli doing their miraculous work. Such a precious, complex process. Something he would never take for granted again.

He shivered a little, wondering if there was any kind of thermostat on Tok’ra scout ships. He felt as though he’d never be warm again.

The distant hum of the engine was comforting. He listened closely as he chewed on the energy bar thrust into his hand by a fretting Daniel minutes after he was ringed up from certain death. The engine noise wasn’t right. It stuttered and faltered and sounded like it needed to go into the nearest scout ship shop for a serious refit. But it was better than the silence of deep space. Anything was better than that.

Daniel had pressed two aspirin and a canteen of water at him after handing him the power bar and hovered close by. Jack thought he must have looked like shit. He certainly felt like it. Tired, a little disoriented, a tangible legacy of the anoxia.

Carter had said something about monitoring his vital signs but he’d brushed her off.  Check out Teal’c, he’d said. As Carter had tried to tend him, Jack had watched Daniel. His arms were wrapped round himself in a gesture he hadn’t seen for a long time. He wanted to say, “Hey, I’m here, I made it back. Takes more than a dead false God with betrayal issues.” He’d tried to say that and more with his eyes, while he was lying on the floor of the ship having beaten the odds one more time.

“Feeling better?”

Jack dragged his gaze from Daniel, who was now talking quietly to Teal’c, probably filling him in the finer points of the rescue mission.

“Yeah, a little. Thanks.” Jack polished off the tasteless snack and reached for the canteen but Jacob got there first, handing it to him as he moved in to sit beside him.

Jack took a long draught, enjoying the feel of the liquid easing his still dry throat.

“Maybe that’ll teach you not to play fast and loose with hybrid technology.”

Jacob had that tight-faced, pissy look Jack recognized in Carter. It was easy to see why those two butted heads so often. Like father, like daughter.

“I’m just the flyboy, Jacob. Direct all matters technical to the good Major.” He took another sip of water, really not up for a ticking off by a General who wasn’t even a General anymore but still acted like one when he felt it appropriate.

“Oh, don’t worry. I already have. I’ll also be having a word with George. What the _hell_ did you all think you were doing?” Jacob’s eyes were flinty, angry, but at least they weren’t glowing. That still freaked Jack out and he really, really, didn’t want to get into it with a know-it-all fucking Tok’ra.

“Working to our remit. Fighting our good fight. Trying to kick some Goa’uld ass. Take your pick.”

Jacob sighed. “I can see why the Tok’ra find the human race so wearing sometimes.”

Jack turned to face him. “Backatcha in reverse, buddy.”

For a while they faced off, the tension subtly edging higher, and then Jacob smiled.

“On the other hand, the Tok’ra can be pretty condescending, and Selmak will give me hell for saying that for a very long time to come.”

Jack smiled in return, then turned to watch Daniel offer Teal’c his jacket. If the big guy was cold, maybe there _was_ a need for a thermostat and it wasn’t just him. Jack realized his eyes were constantly drawn to Daniel. It seemed instinctive, intuitive.

“Does he know?” Jacob’s voice was low.

Jack turned his head quickly. “What?”

“Does he know.” He enunciated each word carefully, as though speaking to a child slow on the uptake.

Jack couldn’t talk. He swallowed hard. Eventually he found some words from somewhere. He wasn’t sure they were right ones, but they’d have to do. “I’m assuming Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell doesn’t apply in the Tok’ra ranks.”

Jacob pursed his lips, then paused, seeming to choose his words carefully. “ I was there, Jack. In the ring room. I would have to have been blind not to see it.”

Jack found he had no answer, at least, not one Jacob would accept.

“You need to talk to him,” Jacob said, easing himself from his seating perch and standing right in Jack’s personal space.

“And then you need to talk to my daughter.”

 

ends


End file.
